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Time for Solidarity with Alberto Patishtán, political prisoner in Chiapas

March 24, 2013

ALMA SÁNCHEZ

While Mexican justice refuses to take responsibility in
the case of the indigenous political prisoner, his defence team, family and
friends start a campaign to demand his freedom.

Faced with the decision of the Office of the Supreme
Court not to take the case of the Tzotzil Alberto Patishtán, perhaps the most
iconic political prisoner in Mexico, his family and friends and organizations of
human rights defenders are organizing a national and international campaign to press for his release.

In 2000, Professor Alberto Patishtán Gomez was arrested
without a warrant and forced to make a statement without a lawyer or translator.
In March 2002 he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing seven policemen
in an ambush in a place called Las Limas, in the municipality of El Bosque. In
spite of reasonable proof offered by the defence that he had not participated in
the ambush, and of inconsistencies in the trial, the maximum penalty was given
to the teacher; he appealed the decision and received legal protection (un
amparo directo), but was sentenced in May 2003, accused of culpable homicide and
malicious wounding, robbery, damage and carrying a firearm reserved for the
exclusive use of the army.

On October 20, 2011, while Patishtán and other prisoners
were on hunger strike in prison in San Cristobal de la Casas, demanding justice
for their cases, the teacher was arbitrarily transferred to CEFERESO 8
Norponiente in Guasave, Sinaloa. There he lived in conditions of continual
torture which were documented and widely reported by the Fray Bartolomé de las
Casas Human Rights Centre. Later, after many protests, he was granted legal
protection (amparo) and was able to return to Chiapas. In late 2012, Patishtán
was operated on for a brain tumour which had led to him almost losing his sight,
and which grew in size due to the lack of appropriate care for his health; after
the operation he regained nearly 80 per cent of his vision.

After exhausting the national legal routes (process,
appeal and direct legal protection), the political prisoner’s defence team
resorted to the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) seeking a motion
for the recognition of innocence, an "exceptional" appeal brought following the
emergence of new public documents which were in Patishtán’s favour, and appeared
“after the sentence was passed”, Sandino Rivero said in previous
interview.

However, on March 6, 2013, the Supreme Court of Justice
of the Nation (SCJN), decided not to resume its competence in the jurisdiction
of the Patishtán case, with two votes in favour and three against. The Supreme
Court put the case in the hands of the First Collegiate Court of the Twentieth
Circuit, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, so they could resolve the motion of
innocence later in April 2013.

The
campaign

Since it seems that Mexican justice is on the side of
cases like that of Florence Cassez, and the recent release of another
perpetrator of the Acteal Massacre, and not on the side of political prisoners
with a history of struggle and resistance, like that of the Tzotzil prisoner,
solidarity has risen up around him. Alberto Patishtán Gómez has also been
recognized as a human rights defender for his political actions in the prisons
he has been transferred to. The Mexican justice system leaves much to be desired
in cases like this.

The Patishtán Family, the Fray Bartolome de las Casas
Human Rights Centre (Frayba), lawyers and groups, all believe it is the right
time for a campaign of national and international support for Alberto Patishtán.
On March 20, they gathered together at the Frayba offices to clarify what
happened in court and to convoke the campaign known as "Fighting for Patishtán’s freedom, let’s celebrate his
birthday". Among those attending were Patishtán’s daughter Gabriela, his friends and family
from El Bosque, the lawyer in the case, Leonel Rivero, the director of Frayba,
Víctor Hugo López Rodríguez, and, by telephone from Social Rehabilitation Centre
number five in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Alberto Patishtán himself. They made
a call for solidarity and the joining of forces in this new stage in the demand
for his liberation and the search for justice.

The [new] campaign proposes that, from 21 March to 15
April, 4,686 letters are sent, one for each day that Patishtán has been in
prison, to the President Minister of the Council of the Federal Judiciary, Juan
Silva Meza, and to the ministers of the First Collegiate Court of the Twentieth
Circuit.

Social networks will be another setting for the protest.
The actions on Facebook will begin on March 23, when users who join the campaign
are asked to change their profile pictures to an image that will appear on
Facebook dedicated to Patishtán. Every Friday, the campaign indicates, the users
should invite their online friends to join the action.

For Twitter, the goal is for 4,686 messages to be
published every Friday with the hashtag #LibertadPatishtan. This would
also start on March 23, and would be repeated every week until April
19.

The campaign also involves sending photographs, poems,
thoughts, drawings and posters on the theme of the political prisoner’s
birthday. The materials are to be sent to the email address presoschiapas@gmail.com or physically brought to
the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Centre, which is located at number
14 Calle Brasil, Barrio de Mexicanos, in San Cristóbal de Las Casas,
Chiapas.

The members of the campaign plan to use these materials
in demonstrations on April 19th, Patishtán’s birthday, and afterwards they will
be sent to him. On the same date peaceful mobilizations are called for at the
national and international level, demanding Patishtán’s freedom. In the
worldwide actions people can demonstrate and deliver letters to Mexican
embassies and consulates in their own countries.

The Ik’ collective said: "We feel called to show
solidarity because in the person of Alberto we see all the imprisoned Tzotzil
people; in his serene face are the faces of all the indigenous people of Mexico;
in his fight for justice are all the thousands of innocents imprisoned; in his
look and prayer are all the believers in a just and loving God." They finished
by stating that "with our actions we will resurrect justice in Mexico.
Resurrection today is justice for innocent people in prison."

We ask you to notify us of
all activities you plan for 19 April, together with a photo and/or video of what
you did, to presoschiapas@gmail.com so we can inform the national
media, and show Professor Patishtán all the support for his freedom.

On 19 April, Patishtán’s birthday, we are asking you to
physically deliver messages to the addresses below:

In Mexico City (D.F) - Consejo de la Judicatura
Federal, which oversees the work of magistrates and judges in Mexico, at
Insurgentes Sur No. 2417, San Ángel. Álvaro Obregón. C.P. 01000, México
D.F.